I'm too tired to set out all my thoughts on this, but here are the results ... Jeremy Hooke, the LibDem who won Thorpe Hamlet by 1 vote last night, stood between me and correctly predicting the whole election!
Bowthorpe - Con GAIN from Labour - Tory John Wyatt takes this traditionally safe Labour seat from backbencher Chrissie Rumsby
Catton Grove - Con hold - Eve Collishaw extends her majority following Labour's negative campaign
Crome - Lab hold - Alan Waters hold off a late challenge from the Tories and does so by some margin
Lakenham - Lab hold - Keith Driver demonstrates his popularity in the ward by stopping a LibDem campaign which looked unstopable
Mancroft - Green hold - An easy win for new boy Tom Dylan, replacing one-year-wonder Steve Altman.
Mile Cross - Lab hold - The rumours of Steve Morphew's political death were rather over-exaggerated ... an easy 300 vote win that will make the LibDems wonder why they bothered.
Nelson - Green hold - Adrian Ramsay just takes the piss with the size of his majority.
Sewell - Lab hold - Julie B-C wins again, helped by the lack of a Norwich-over-the-water candidate. Is this a future Green target?
Thorpe Hamlet - LibDem hold - Thank god Jeremy voted for himself.
Town Close - Green GAIN from LibDem - Long serving Councillor Chris Thomas was left by his party to be slaughtered here - and slaughtered he was.
University - Lab hold - Lord Mayor designate Roy Blower puts this ward as Labour's safest. My word how things have changed in just a few years!
Wensum - Green hold - I just wonder if Rupert gets annoyed that Adrian's is bigger than his (talking majorities, of course...)
Norwich City Council:
Labour 15 (-1)
LibDems 11 (-1)
Greens 10 (+1)
Cons 3 (+1)
More over the weekend!
7 comments:
You forgot Eaton which the Lib Dems held. Also, i think it's really positive when students stand for seats as it's their community as well but they should stay there for the whole of their tenure rather than just stay for a year and then pack it in like Altman
A theme I raised on the election day posting, will the next 12 months see the extinction of the Lib Dems in Norwich?
Next year they are defending:
Mile X - Despite Mayhew's enthusiasm without the resources of ther whole Norfolk Lib Dems (as in his by election) it will be curtains.
Lakenham: Does Herewood have the stomach for a fight? Depends on Labour findig the right candidate but the odds are no better than even.
Town Close: Predict Felicity Hartley will stand down. She is a very good cllr but I cannot see her wanting to fight off the Greens. If Felicity goes the Greens are unstoppable.
Thorpe Hamlet: The greens won the moral victory on Thursday - they will sweep in easily next time.
Eaton: The Tories had a very good score without raising too much sweat this year. Next year Tories could well win.
University: Really cannot see Diane Hume holding this given the past two years results.
Mancroft: Best bet for the sitting Lib Dem is defection. Liberals came a poor third this year.
So potentially 7 of 11 seats lost. If there is a unitary authority or not what is the point of the Lib Dems now the Tories have woken up?
Broadland was appalling for the Liberals too.
Comrade, Agreed Lib Dems will be next years whipping boys, with the odd Labour scrap like Ferris in Bowthorpe.
Maltheus, I saw your post on Nobbs on Nobbs on your blog. The Lib Dems in Mile Cross were let down by the poor candidate. If Norwich is a unitary then that will be interesting. Mayhew is far more effective than Blakeway and derserved his result last year so I for one will be looking forward to Mayhew v Morphew. That will be a real contest, Nobbs just wasn't up to it.
I did hear a murmour that the original Lib Dem choice for Mile X was Simon Richardson.....
Steve Morphew is being rather petty and childish about Unitary Leaflets. If one looks at the timetable between March and 22nd June that government wants a Norfolk CC response on Unitary, its clear there is no deliberate intention. City Labour got beat fair and square in Bowthorpe. If a higher % of the electorate turned out, the margin would have been higher.
This is not an issue about fairness, 1 lost labour sear in Bowthorpe, this is part of the bigger Unitary struggle between Norwich City Labour and Norfolk CC, and jostling for power. Morphew seems very unconfident and sensitive on his baby, the Unitary project. Morphew response seems politically immature in an NOC result where City Labour were still administrators, yet had little chance of overall control.
Should Norfolk CC stop all its business during April such as on the NDR for fear of upsetting the Greens.
Why Labour lost in Bowthorpe, again
Labour did not put any leaflets through doors, so voters didn't really know what the detailed manifesto was. The Bowthorpe Matter leaflet came through most doors setting out the bread and butter issues, unitary was not mentioned.
Bowthorpe and Earlham is still riddled by litter, vandalism and grafitti. Labour hasn't done much on the ground to clear this before the election.
Bowthorpe and N Earlham have been ingored with funding compared to NELM areas.
The Labour Candidate hadn't done the ground work on the grownd and was relying on the central Labour spin machine of Peter Watt. John Wyatt came across as the better canditate who could put the time in, and connected with voters with green issues and being down to earth as an allotment holder.
Council Tax was increased by 4.7% by City Labour. Big issue. Too much for pensioners like myself, and double inflation rates. We are not even getting the basic good services like prompt litter clearups. It takes ages and doesn't always get properly reported by City Halls centralised contact numbers. We are not getting value for money under City Labour, at the moment.
I can't see where Steve Morphew wants to go with this, and there is a risk it might backfire on City Labour as a sour grapes party, who sat on their laurels in Bowthorpe, like last year. I think it will further alienate City Labour and also the Unitary issue with the Norwich public.
Bowthorpe resident (Ex Labour voter)
That is not true, he was never considered.
Post a Comment